


Kiss for a Kiss

by FagurFiskur



Series: Tropes! [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: (because of the love spell), Dubcon Kissing, First Kiss, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Misunderstandings, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 00:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20322370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FagurFiskur/pseuds/FagurFiskur
Summary: Dean snorts. “Meaning someone got an ass full of arrows?”“Yes,” Cas says, looking at him for the first time since he entered. “You did. Multiple times.”





	Kiss for a Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a trope-mash up prompt I got on tumblr.

The alarm rings and it takes a moment for Dean to orient himself. He sits up, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand as he blearily takes in the room. They’re in a motel just outside of Alamosa, on their way back home after working a case. Sam’s sleeping in the next bed over and Cas…

Cas is nowhere to be seen.

Dean sits up and checks his phone. No messages. He shoots off a quick ‘_where r u’_ at Cas and gets up, looking around the room. No notes or anything to indicate where Cas might have gone.

“Sam,” Dean says.

Sam turns over in the bed and grunts in acknowledgment.

“Did you see Cas leave?”

Sam opens one eye. “No. He’s gone?”

Dean looks down at his phone again, as if he might have received a message in the past minute without noticing. “Yeah.”

“Maybe he went out for breakfast?”

That’s a possibility but Dean still doesn’t like that he left without letting them know. Cas has been better lately about checking in and not leaving without so much as saying goodbye. He’d been planning on going back to the bunker with them. Dean was gonna take him out to play pool and he’d been excited about it.

Dean sighs. Cas probably _has _gone out for breakfast and he’s worrying over nothing. Still, to be sure, he decides to call.

Cas picks up on the second ring. “I’m on my way.”

He hangs up before Dean can get a word in. He looks at his phone, annoyed and a little offended.

“Everything okay?” Sam asks.

“…I guess so.”

Dean stares at the phone for a couple of seconds more, then puts it down and heads to the bathroom for a shower. 

They go through their morning routine and both are up and dressed by the time Cas shows up, looking a little grumpy but otherwise fine.

“Where were you?” Dean asks as soon as he walks through the door, even though he promised himself not to make a bigger deal out of it than he already has.

“I was taking care of something,” Cas answers without looking at him.

Dean waits a beat. “…Wanna elaborate?”

“A witch and a cherub.”

Dean blinks. He looks over at Sam, who seems as surprised as he feels. “Wait, what? You found a case here? We’ve been in town for like ten hours!”

“We’ve been here thirty-two days,” Cas says, as if that makes any kind of sense. Dean wracks his brain but nope, all he can remember is arriving in town late last night and heading straight for the motel.

Sam is quicker on the uptake. “We were stuck in a time loop? Like-”

“Like the one Gabriel trapped you in, yes,” Cas says, with the weary air of someone repeating themselves for the fiftieth time. Or thirty-second, as the case may be. “It wasn’t targeted at us. A witch cast a powerful spell in order to prevent her soulmate from dying, with the assistance of the cherub who brought them together.”

“And that took us thirty-two days to figure out?” Dean can’t help asking. 

Cas grimaces. “The cherub was under the witch’s protection, I couldn’t sense him. And once we were on his trail he… distracted us quite successfully.”

Dean snorts. “Meaning someone got an ass full of arrows?”

“Yes,” Cas says, looking at him for the first time since he entered. “You did. Multiple times.”

Oh. Dean feels his cheeks grow warm, not helped when he sees that Cas is also blushing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened which is good, because Dean is apparently enough of an idiot to let a freaking _cherub _get the drop on him.

Dean clearly got hit by the cherub’s magic and went straight for Cas. It’s a lot of work to make a person fall in love after all, but if someone’s head over heels already then it wouldn’t take more than a nudge. In Dean’s case, he feels like a light breeze blowing in the right direction might have been enough.

“I didn’t… do anything weird?” Dean asks, by which he means ‘_tell me I didn’t try to molest you’_.

“…No,” Cas lies, unconvincingly.

Dean doesn’t wanna call him out on it. He feels sick thinking about all the things he could have done that he doesn’t remember, everything he might have said to Cas.

“Well, I’m sure you’re itching to get out of here,” he says, shooting Cas a half-hearted smile that he doesn’t see because he’s once again looking anywhere but at Dean. “Let’s hit the road.”

Dean expects the next few days to be awkward. What he doesn’t expect is for Cas to avoid him altogether, so successfully that even though they’re both in the bunker they don’t run into each other once in over a week.

First, Dean is relieved. Cas keeping his distance means he doesn’t have to keep being reminded that he may or may not have molested his best friend while under a love spell.

Then, he’s pissed. Whatever happened didn’t actually really happen, so Dean shouldn’t be getting punished for something he never even did. 

Finally, he’s hurt. Is Cas gonna keep avoiding him forever? Was whatever Dean did so bad that it has irreparably damaged their relationship? Would there be anything Dean could say to make things better, even if Cas did stick around to listen?

He goes back to being pissed. It’s easier to handle.

About three weeks later, Dean finally manages to corner Cas in the library late one night.

“How long were you planning on avoiding me?”

Cas’ shoulders go stiff. He returns his book to the shelf, turning around to face Dean with a contrite expression. He’s still not looking Dean in the eye, though.

“Dean, I-”

“Because it’s bullshit! If I did something, then just tell me and I’ll apologize and we can get over it.” Dean crosses his arms. “But I didn’t even _do _anything in the first place, so letting me stew like this is really crappy.”

“I didn’t mean to… let you stew,” Cas says. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“Then why the disappearing act?”

Cas stares off to the side for a while. Dean watches him silently, waiting for the answer. He’s not gonna let Cas get away with not talking here; he can do this all night if he needs to.

“I didn’t want you to hate me,” Cas finally says, voice small.

Dean blinks, confusion cutting through his anger. “What - why would I hate you?”

“I’m sorry.” At long last, Cas actually looks at him, eyes big and sad, and Dean finds himself wishing he hadn’t. “You deserve to know.”

He raises one hand, bringing it to Dean’s temple. Dean draws in a sharp breath, hit with vertigo as his surroundings change in a flash. They’re back in that motel room in Alamosa, and Dean startles when he sees another Cas standing by one of the beds. He looks over at the Cas next to him, but he’s surveying the scene with a stormy expression.

Suddenly, another Dean enters as well. The other Cas turns to him.

“Dean, what is it? You asked me to meet you here, but-”

That’s all other Cas gets out before other Dean is on him, kissing him like a man possessed. Dean averts his eyes uncomfortably, feeling like an asshole for pressuring Cas on this. If this is what he had to deal with, multiple times, it’s no wonder he doesn’t wanna be around Dean anymore.

He’s about to apologize when a noise catches his attention. It’s a muffled groan, low but unmistakable, and Dean turns his attention back to the scene unfolding before them in shock as the other Cas starts kissing other Dean back, grabbing his jacket and hauling him in even closer.

“Dean,” other Cas breathes as they part. “What…”

“I love you,” other Dean says, easy as anything, and Dean’s chest hurts to hear it. He can count on one hand the number of times he’s said those words and it’s never been easy, not like this. 

Other Cas is staring at him like he’s never seen anything so wonderful. “_Dean_. I love you, of course I-”

Other Dean cuts him off with a kiss, and suddenly they’re frozen. Dean turns back to Cas, who gives him a wry look.

“It went on for a while before I figured out what had happened,” he explains.

“Cas…”

“I’m not done.”

The scene changes. They’re still in the motel room, but Cas is again the only person actually there. Dean watches himself enter again, watches himself kiss Cas and tell him he loves him.

He watches as Cas lets him do it all, even knowing that he’s under a spell. He stops after one kiss this time, knocking Dean out with a finger to his forehead and placing him gently down on the bed.

The scene rewinds.

Dean enters again, Cas looks ready for him this time. He still lets Dean kiss him, lets him tell him he loves him before knocking him out again.

Rewind.

Enter. Kiss. _I love you_. Lights out.

Rewind.

Dean looks over at Cas, who is staring at their doubles with a pained kind of longing in his expression.

“Stop it,” Dean says. “Please.”

The memory fades away, and they’re back in the bunker.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Cas tells him. “I was the one - I violated you. I knew you wouldn’t have done that in your right mind but I let you anyway because I wanted to believe-” He cuts himself off, looking angry. “There’s no excuse.”

Dean swallows. “It was just a kiss,” he says weakly.

“I should have told you, but I was weak. I didn’t want you to hate me.”

And Dean knows maybe he shouldn’t be, considering how upset Cas looks, but he’s so fucking _relieved_. 

“You’re a moron,” he says.

Cas look sharply at him. “What?”

Dean leans in, cupping Cas’ cheek and tugging him in for a kiss. Cas goes stiff against him, letting out a sound that almost sounds wounded. When Dean pulls away, he can see that he’s raised one hand but kept it at bay, as if he wants to touch but is afraid he isn’t allowed.

“There.” Dean smiles, looking Cas right in the eyes and hoping that he can pick up on everything Dean can’t bring himself to say. “A kiss for a kiss. We’re even.”

Cas stares at him, eyes wide. He doesn’t respond for a long moment, and Dean is beginning to think he made a mistake when he finally talks.

“It was twelve kisses.”

He sounds hesitant and hopeful all at once, and Dean feels the last knot of tension loosen in his stomach. He steps closer, bringing their bodies flush together, a shiver running down his spine when Cas tentatively puts a hand on his hip.

“Is that so?” he asks, warm and low. “Guess I’d better get on that.”

Cas meets him in the middle this time.


End file.
